The present invention relates to an auxiliary seat fitted to a vehicle seat and designed for an infant.
For an infant so young as to be unable to sit on a car seat for oneself, or an infant able to sit on a car seat for oneself but unable to cope with a jolt, a shock or the like, while the car is in motion, it is very risky to put such an infant on the car seat alone.
For the purpose of avoiding such a risk, generally, an infant auxiliary seat having a structure suitable for arresting the infant and which can be attached to a car seat has been used.
This type auxiliary seat is know commonly and generally called "(auxiliary) car seat" or the like.
For example, the structure of this type auxiliary seat is know from the teaching of Japanese Utility Model Post-Examination Publication No. 57-2197. The structure of the auxiliary seat disclosed in the Publication is as follows. Two belts for arresting an infant are drawn out from the seat back of an auxiliary seat body. Then the forward ends of the belts are collected at the upper end portion of a mechanism body forming a part of one buckle mechanism while the shoulders of the infant are pressed by the belts. Then the collected forward ends of the belts are fitted or fastened to another buckle mechanism in which the lower end of a buckle is attached to the seat floor. In short, the whole of the belt mechanism is formed as an integral fixed structure.
Accordingly, when used, the (two) belts of such a fixed structure including the buckle mechanism must be pulled over the head of the infant sitting in the auxiliary seat, so that the operation for attachment/detachment of the belts is very complex.
As described above, in the case of the aforementioned structure, the two belts for pressing the shoulders of the infant are designed to be collected to one buckle mechanism at the abdominal region of the infant. Accordingly, the fastening operation is apt to be made using the abdominal region of the infant. This is disadvantageous in that the operation is apt to bring an unpleasant feeling to the infant who is a user of the structure.
In the case of the aforementioned conventional structure, the buckle mechanism is attached to part of the belts. Accordingly, not only the manufacturing process of the structure is complex but also the parts used in structure. Accordingly, the manufacturing cost is apt to be high.
Further, the aforementioned conventional auxiliary seat is designed so that an infant is put on the auxiliary seat so as to face forward or backward with respect to the car seat and then fixed to the seat portion by use of seat belts incorporated in the car seat.
Not only it is a matter of course that the aforementioned auxiliary seat has a structure suitable for arresting the infant stably, but also it is required that the arresting force can be maintained without giving a large shock to the infant even in the case where the car stops suddenly in an emergency such as a crash accident or the like.
To satisfy these requirements, the conventional auxiliary seat has been designed as follows.
(1) Reinforcement ribs are provided in the rear surface of the auxiliary seat body to maintain the strength of the body and thus prevent the injury of the auxiliary seat body even in the case where a shock due to a crash or the like occurs.
(2) As described in Japanese Utility Model Post-Examination Publication No. 56-55066, a construction (rotary plate located in the pillow portion) for supporting or protecting the head of the infant is provided in the upper portion of the auxiliary seat body so that, in case of a car crash, the crash energy can be absorbed by the construction.
(3) Reinforcement pipes or the like are attached to the rear surface of the auxiliary seat. The seat belts of the car are passed through the reinforcement pipes to fix the auxiliary seat to the car seat, so that a shock due to a crash can be absorbed by the pipes.
However, the aforementioned conventional structures have the following disadvantages.
(1) In the case where a buffer or cushion member for supporting the head of the infant is provided in the upper part of the auxiliary seat body, only the head of the child is protected from the shock due to a crash or the like and, in particular, it is quite impossible to cope with the shock applied to the whole body of the infant.
(2) In the case where reinforcement ribs are integrally formed in the rear surface of the auxiliary seat body, the reinforcement ribs are exposed at the rear surface of the body an ugly appearance. Further, the exposed reinforcement ribs touch the car seat or the seat back portion thereof when the auxiliary seat is fixed to the car seat. As a result the cloth of the car seat is apt to be scraped or injured.
(3) In the case where pipes, serving as a shock absorber and as a reinforcement member, are mounted to the rear surface of the auxiliary seat body, the seat back is thickened because the size for mounting the pipes is added to the size of the auxiliary seat body. As a result the structure of the auxiliary seat becomes large in scale. Further, the pipes touch the car seat when the auxiliary seat is fixed to the car seat. Thus, the cloth of to the car seat is apt to be scraped or injured in the same manner as in the case of the reinforcement ribs.
Further, the infant put on the auxiliary seat is held in place by the two belts set up between the seat back and the seat floor of the auxiliary seat, so that the infant on the auxiliary seat is protected from a jolt of the car and a shock due to sudden stop or the like.
Further, the infant-arresting belts set up between the seat back and the seat floor can be taken up and drawn out by a retractor mechanism attached to the lower surface of the auxiliary seat body, so that the expansion and contraction of the belts can be made freely. In other words, the arresting belts are provided retractably so that the unpleasant feeling produced by applying the large tightening force of the arresting belts to the body of the infant can be eliminated at all times.
With respect to the infant-arresting belts, two belts are used for touching the front surface of the infant body and arresting the infant. The upper end portions (seat back side end portions) of the two belts are drawn out from the rear surface of the seat back and then taken up by the retractor attached to the lower surface of the seat floor. However, in the case where the two arresting belts are to be taken up by the rectractor as they are, the takeup mechanism of the retractor becomes large in scale, so that a large space is required for housing the belts. Furthermore, the necessary length of the belts becomes long. Consequently, there arises an economical problem on the whole.
Further, the position where the infant-arresting belts are drawn out from the seat back must be moved upward corresponding to the growing-up or size of the infant using the belts. To change the drawing-out position, the drawing-out position must be shifted from a lower-stage pair of slits to an upper-stage pair of slits, selected from the multiple stages of slits arranged in two rows in the seat back of the auxiliary seat. In the case of the conventional structure, the end portions of the infant-arresting belts are, however, taken up by the retractor as they are. Accordingly, in the case where the changing operation is to be performed, the belts taken up by the retractor must be removed from the retractor before the changing operation is carried out. As a consequence the changing operation is so complex that a housewife lacking in expert knowledge cannot operate the mechanism.
To cope with these problems, a structure has been proposed as follows.
As shown in FIG. 17, the end portions of the two arresting belts are collectively fastened to one beltlength adjusting member so as to be adjustable. Then another belt is drawn out from the lower end portion of the adjusting member so that one end of the belt is taken up by a retractor.
The structure of the adjusting member as shown in FIG. 17 is effective in reducing the size of the retractor mechanism and is economical in that the belts used are not long. However, the structure has still the following disadvantages.
(1) The adjusting member is composed of two parts; a fixing part a and a belt-stop part b. In the case where two infant-arresting belts 4', are fastened to the adjusting member, the operational procedure is complex because the adjusting member is used as follows. The forward ends of the belts 4' are respectively passed through from the rear sides of slits formed in the fixing part a so that the opposite ends of the belt-stop part b are inserted in loops c formed at the forward end portions of the belts.
(2) Because the end portions of the two belts 4', fastened to the adjusting member are fixed to the beltstop part b, it is impossible to use the part for the adjustment of the belt length. Therefore, the adjustment of the belt length cannot be made except by a method of adjusting the length of the other belt 309' drawn out toward the retractor through a series of belt-insertion slits d provided in the lower end portions of the fixing part a and belt-stop part b overlapping one another. As a consequence, the length of the two belts 4', directly touching the body of the infant cannot be adjusted finely.
(3) Because the end portion of the respective arresting belt 4' must be formed like a loop, a sewing process for forming such a loop is required thereby increasing the cost. Further, because the end portions of the respective belts 4' are formed like loops, the loop portions become thick, so that much labor is required for inserting the belt in the slits provided in the fixing part a.
(4) In the case where the loop portion of each belt 4' fastened to the belt-stop part b is to be removed, the belt 309' drawn out toward the retractor from the lower end of the adjusting member must be removed from the insertion slit d to cancel the overlapping of the fixing part a and belt-stoop part b before the belt-stop part b will be opened. Consequently, much labor is required for the removing operation which is very complex.
On such circumstances, the present invention is intended to cope with those difficulties.